IMAN a Yemeni girl and refugee from brothers

WHO WANTED TO KILL HER ....This is a true story of a Yemeni girl fighting for her right to be educated .
I met IMAN six years ago in Yemen , my daughter was studying Arabic at the university there. Iman surprised me with her remarkable ability to speak English , her beauty , her intelligence and mostly her very caring & helpful nature.
As I got to know her i became aware of her tragic family story , it shows how courageous she is & determined to achieve what she wants, in this case an education.
Yemen is a backward country culturally by our standards. It is religious, women are hidden under veils . With little rights , & although they are protected by the fathers , husbands & brothers , protection has a whole different meaning there . Girls as young as 12 can be married off for a price, negotiated by the brothers or father. Iman , a highly intelligent girl who knew from a young age she wanted to study law. But it was impossible because her brothers sold her at 13 to a man of 40. After a week she ran back to her family , she was beaten & returned to the husband, the husband no longer wanted her, she was beaten again by the brothers. A year later she was sold again , & ran away again & was beaten more severely this time . Her virginity gone, her selling price was diminished , but she has beauty so she was on the market again . She determined to not be married and pleaded with her brothers to allow her to finish school first. In the mean time she got work in a hotel where she earnt money to support her ailing mother who with 7 children including 5 lazy qat chewing sons had no income. She was confronted one evening by overhearing her brothers threatening to kill her if she did not marry a man who had offered to buy her for a bride, she had no idea of this proposed marriage, the brothers determined their good name & pride would not be blackened again by a disobedient sister . Luck had it the hotel she was working in, had organised for a passport for her. Wanting to send her overseas for training , however it was not ready yet. Iman went to the office with all the gold she had and bribed the officers to let her have the passport. She had no permission from her "Mahrahm " , more gold slipped to the officer allowed her to get on a plane . She went to Sweden where they accepted refugees. The Swedish are very accommodating, as long as they are genuine and want to accept swedish culture , language and work. Free school is for a year , every 3 months they are tested, if they pass they stay , if not are repatriated back to Yemen . Of 72 Yemenis Iman is the only one allowed to remain . She speaks fluent Swedish now as well as English , Shortly after her arrival she was hospitalised and operated on for internal damage to her spleen caused from her beatings , she nearly died due to infection afterwards . Luckily she met a family who offered her food & board in exchange for baby sitting. She did her high school certificate in Swedish & is now training in nursing, she can earn money while she trains. She saves her money & in three years she will have enough to go to university to study law. She is now 27.
She had to return to Yemen for a month recently when there was confusion with her sponsorship, unable to see her old mother and little sister for fear of her brothers who have made it known they will kill her for her disloyalty to protect their honour.
We have a group of friends including the manager of this hotel where Iman used to work who help her collectively with funds, clothes & money for books etc. Remakably she sends money to her old mother and sister even though she knows there is little chance of seeing them again.
I write this as I am prompted to tell it as an example of how someone can have no opportunity in life and still can manage to make it happen for herself....Whereas some young people have everything at their feet & every opportunity yet have no clue of how to fulfil themselves. Saskia